Wattle Seedpods Inspire a Titanium Pendant

When we lived at Tamborine Mountain there was a straggly Wattle tree on our property. When we bought the place the real estate agent told us it was a rubbish tree and to cut it down, silly man! It was the only fully grown tree on the land, so we kept it, grew some Staghorn ferns on it and watched as beautiful mosses and lichens made a home on it too! The pods from this tree seemed strange to me at first, but since then I’ve seen many other wattle seedpods, many of them in very, equally interesting shapes. Australian native plants have always held a fascination for me, the seedpods are so different from anything I’d ever seen in Holland! I collect them whenever I see another species and draw them while ‘watching’ TV. This one went a little further, as I drew them, untangled them and abstracted one, they seemed very suitable for some jewellery……

This is the bunch of pods I found lying under our tree, they grow and twist together into a tight cluster. I carefully untangled this and started drawing the single pod.

The top drawing is the one I used for my pendant, it is also the most true to the pods when they are unraveled. The other drawings are done just imagining the pods straightened out, they look more like beans! I like them too and will be working with those designs soon (I hope) To eliminate even more detail I cut a copy of the drawing out of some coloured card, looking at the positive and negative shapes gives me ideas for different pieces. Taken to extremes I could work with just these pods for a life time I think. There is so much detail in them!

So here’s the pendant, it is 8 cm across (3+ inches) It is made from Titanium on Sterling Silver, riveted together. It is hanging from leather thonging that I have coloured to match. This was a fairly simple piece to make and I enjoyed working with something a little larger, easier to hold and work on. The leather thongs come together in a Sterling endcap and I’m working on a chain for the back of it, just couldn’t wait until that was finished to take the picture:) The Titanium is very light, so even though this is a large piece, it is very comfortable to wear.

A nice bonus to this design was the bits that came out of the middle, both the Titanium & the Sterling Silver will make another, smaller piece, with the silver on top in that case! I have several other wattle seedpods that I’ve picked up over the years, I’m drawing them and I think I feel another piece coming on, just need to free up some time! These are long ‘pregnancies’ sometimes:))

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